Urge Assembly focus attention at its forthcoming meeting upon the dual, vitally urgent obligation: the conservation of the vigor and spiritual health of the community and the intensification of effort aiming at realization of recently approved Temple Plan. Sleepless vigilance to ward off subtle attacks of enemies is first prerequisite to sound unfoldment of the processes of the enterprise already operating. The fateful forties, pregnant for weal and woe, are ushered in. The American believers enter them firmly rooted in the fertile soil of the administrative order and bountifully nourished by the vital sap of the animation of its institutions, spreading its sheltering shadow to the farthest corners of the Western Hemisphere. Centenary of the Birth of the Faith is approaching. Victories unsuspected are within reach of community. The sooner they are achieved, the sharper the contrast offered with distracting miseries afflicting a generation which the Faith alone can and must eventually redeem. Cablegram January 18, 1940 BELOVED HANDMAID ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s beloved handmaid, the distinguished disciple, May Maxwell, is gathered into the glory of the Abhá Kingdom. Her earthly life, so rich, eventful, incomparably blessed, is worthily ended. To sacred tie her signal services had forged, the priceless honor of a martyr’s crown is now added, a double crown deservedly won. The Seven Year Plan, particularly the South American campaign, derive fresh impetus from the example of her glorious sacrifice. Southern outpost of Faith greatly enriched through association with her historic resting place, destined to remain a poignant reminder of the resistless march of the triumphant army of Bahá’u’lláh. Advise believers of both Americas to hold befitting memorial gathering. Cablegram March 3, 1940 THEIR GOD-GIVEN TASK The fourth year of the Seven Year Plan enters upon its course in circumstances that are at once critical, challenging, and unprecedented in their significance. The year that has passed has in so far as the rise and establishment of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the Western Hemisphere is concerned, been one of the most eventful since the Plan began to operate and exercise its potent and beneficent influence. Both within and without the Community of the Most Great Name, the events which the last twelve months has unfolded have in some mysterious way, whether directly or indirectly, communicated their force to the Plan’s progressive unfoldment, contributed to the orientation of its policy and assisted in the consolidation of the diversified undertakings, both primary and subsidiary that fall within its orbit. Even the losses which the ranks of its stout-hearted upholders have sustained will, when viewed in their proper perspective, be regarded as gains of incalculable value, affecting both its immediate fortunes as well as its ultimate destiny.